I recently made an almond cake using an easy and versatile recipe that I have used in the past to make those delicious rainbow bars made famous in NYC. I had a little batter leftover along with some homemade strawberry jam, so I decided to put together something most Americans may not have heard about, a dessert called a bakewell tart.
This lovely little recipe is an English confection consisting of a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam, then add your almond cake batter and top the whole thing with sliced almonds and baked until golden brown. Most commonly you will find raspberry or cherry jam used in the recipe, but in this case I had some strawberry jam leftover, so I used that…strawberry and almond is another exceptional flavor combination, so don’t hesitate to try it. If you have a store bought jam and want to use that, it’s perfectly fine too.
Many recipes that I have come across use an almond cream, otherwise known as frangipane that includes ground almonds or almond flour in the recipe, but I have found that this very delicate cake batter that uses almond paste works equally well. It creates a deliciously tender tart that is hard to resist.
Some versions of the tart uses a thin fondant to glaze the top, but a simple dusting of powdered sugar with some slightly whipped cream fits the bill just right if you don’t want to go to the extra effort.
You can make your own short crust if you have a little more time, but I happened to have some frozen dough that I picked up at the store that worked equally well.
The moral of the story is that you can create new and unique desserts with a few, good recipes without worrying and stressing too much about having to keep lots of other ingredients on hand. When you have guests to entertain, who wants to spend more time than you have to in the kitchen.
Bakewell Tart
½ recipe of almond cake (will make 2-10” tarts)
2 store bought pie crust
2 cups strawberry jam (or jam of your choice)
fondant or powdered sugar
lightly sweetened whipped cream
Remove the pie crust from the freezer and roll out slightly.
Take the tart rim and lay over the dough and press down. Score the dough using a fork and place this back in the freezer to chill.
In the meantime, make the batter for the almond cake, half a batch with make 2 tarts. Once you have made the batter, remove the crust from the freezer and spray the edges well with a pan release spray. Add a thin layer of batter on the bottom of each crust and then drizzle on a little strawberry jam.
Next add a thicker layer of batter on top of this and top with some chunkier pieces of the jam that you can then swirl in on top of the batter.
Top this with some sliced almonds before baking at 350°F for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown all over.
Allow this to cool completely before adding the fondant or simply dust this and serve with powdered sugar and whipped cream.
Leave a Reply